Two chairs in a church. Sometimes that’s all it takes to make history. They were elegant chairs in the venerable St. Peter’s Basilica. But this was not an official summit or a diplomatically staged meeting, but rather a backstage setting that suddenly became the focus of attention: Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky pushed two chairs together and sat down facing each other. Two men who had recently had public confrontations. Two presidents, two chairs, and a moment that speaks louder than many speeches.
They did not come to Rome as peacemakers. Nor did they come in search of reconciliation. They came, like many others, to the funeral of Pope Francis. A day of farewell, silence, and reflection. And yet, amid the ceremony and mourning, something unexpected happened: they seized the opportunity to meet again. They approached each other and talked in the shadow of St. Peter’s tomb.
Perhaps that is also what we can expect from a jubilee year with the motto “Pilgrims of Hope”: that God sometimes makes use of situations that, at first glance, have nothing to do with hope or a new beginning. He finds us in the midst of routine, of noise, and pain, and opens doors where we believed they had been closed. Trump and Zelensky did not come to Rome as “pilgrims of hope,” but it is possible that the unique atmosphere, the strength of the community, the significant location, or this year’s motto had an impact on them in some way. Perhaps the spirit of peace, reconciliation, and hope that surrounded this celebration left a deeper impression than any political agenda. Let us hope so!
And may this also be true in our own lives. Because we do not need perfect conditions to arouse hope. Two chairs pulled up together are enough. A sincere conversation, a shared silence, a phone call in the midst of the hustle and bustle of our own lives. God often uses the insignificant and the incidental to act. That, for me, is the key message of this image: hope is not a big show, but a gentle invitation to sit down time and again on the chairs that life offers us.
Source: basis-online.net
